menstrual cycle

Education Jun 25

How access to period products removes a barrier to education

By Kavitha Cardoza, Education Week

Rupa Chand Shah, 32, a school teacher who does not support the practice of Chaupadi, teaches an awareness class at Shree Devi Mando School in the hills of Legudsen village in Achham District in western Nepal February 16, 2014. Chaupadi is a tradition observed in parts of Nepal, which cuts women off from the rest of society when they are menstruating. Women who practice traditional chaupadi have to sleep in sheds or outbuildings while they are on their period, often with little protection from the elements. They are not allowed to enter houses or temples, use normal public water sources, take part in festivals or touch others during their menstruation, according to a United Nations field bulletin on the issue. Isolated in sheds that are frequently rickety and unhygienic, there have been cases of women dying while practicing chaupadi from illness, exposure, animal attacks or from fires lit in poorly ventilated spaces. Chaupadi was banned by Nepal's Supreme Court in 2005, but it is still common in the country's far and mid-western regions. Picture taken February 16, 2014. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar (NEPAL - Tags: SOCIETY)ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 16 OF 20 FOR PACKAGE 'BANISHED ONCE A MONTH' TO FIND ALL IMAGES SEARCH 'CHAUPADI' - RTR3G24U

Column: Why a monthly period is especially hard for millions of women around the world

Menstruation is a pronounced burden for women in low-income countries and those who are displaced.

By Marni Sommer, The Conversation

This innovator is trying to make sanitary pads affordable for women in India

Arunachalam Murugananthan is known as India's pad man. Breaking a strict taboo in India's tradition-bound society, Murugananthan worked to perfect an affordable sanitary pad in hope of starting a movement to help women in the developing world. Special correspondent Sam…

By Fred de Sam Lazaro, Mike Fritz

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